CHRIS LAKEY Glenn Roeder has launched a scathing attack on football's fat cat players - and the WAGs who dictate their careers.

CHRIS LAKEY

Glenn Roeder has launched a scathing attack on football's fat cat players - and the WAGs who dictate their careers.

The City manager¡¦s attempts to bring in loan players have hit a familiar brick wall - the reluctance of fringe players to leave the comfort zone of a healthy monthly pay packet and reserve team football for a Championship relegation dog-fight.

"It is just a way of life now, and it is sad," said Roeder. "We have made some of these players so wealthy they haven¡¦t got the motivation that you want."

And Roeder believes part of the problem is down to the WAGs - wives and girlfriends - pulling the strings, rather than the players.

Roeder's comments echo those of Sunderland manager Roy Keane, who earlier this season expressed his frustration at the way footballers were seemingly controlled by their wives rather than their ambitions.

"I can see where last month Roy Keane came out and said they are all going soft, they are all controlled by their wives, because their kids have to be picked up from school - because at the end of the month they know that their salary will be exactly the same playing in the reserves as it will be playing first team football," Roeder said.

"I didn¡¦t take much notice what Roy said, but now I am in this position it is all coming flooding back what Keaney said, and he is right. It is hard to find players who want to play football, who want to get themselves out of the club where the manager doesn't rate them, that is why he is offering him on loan - and they don't want to come because they know they are no better off at the end of the month.

"And really, then you look and do you really want them anyway? Because there must be a lack of desire in any case."

Roeder speaks from some experience, having managed a whole host of big-name Premier League players during his managerial spells at West Ham and Newcastle.

But luring players to the Championship and a club that cannot afford to pay inflated salaries, even to loan players, has proved to be a very different animal for a man who has been in the hot seat for little more than a week.

Roeder is desperately searching for players to fill the weak spots in a City side rooted to the bottom of the table, but while Martin Taylor jumped at the chance of first team football when he moved on a short term deal from Birmingham last week, other players have been more reluctant.

"Managers I have been speaking to have offered me one or two of their players that could have been of interest to us," said Roeder. "But we are now finding that we live in a world where it has completely changed.

"We live in a world where players, quite a few players - obviously Martin Taylor is not one - are quite happy to pick up their wages and play in the reserves.

"They don¡¦t see any benefit in playing first team football, and it¡¦s sad. It is not that they don't want to come to Norwich City, because these players have turned down other teams in the Championship. But, no, they would rather stay and play reserve team football, because probably most times they will have to travel, they will have to live in a hotel for a month."

Roeder believes he got it right with Taylor, who has proved an astute signing on the evidence of his first two matches in City colours.

"Martin Taylor hadn't played at Birmingham for a few weeks now," said Roeder. "I asked him did he want to come: “Yes, I want to come. I want to feel that I have earned my salary. I have trained all week and there is a game of football for me at the end of the week and I feel that I have earned my money that I am paid every week."